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Comedian John Oliver has once again asked his viewers to fight on behalf of net neutrality, and the Federal Communications Commission website wasn't able to handle the immediate influx of angry comments.

On HBO's Last Week Tonight, Oliver yesterday announced a new URL, gofccyourself.com, that redirects to the FCC proposal to eliminate net neutrality rules. (Clicking "Express" is the easiest way to submit a comment.) The comments website promptly crashed, making it difficult or impossible to file comments last night and this morning. The comments site has started working, but only intermittently.

Further Reading

Oliver first tackled net neutrality in June 2014, causing the FCC comments site to crash. The site struggled again later that year as the net neutrality debate winded down, forcing the commission to extend the comments deadline. The commission's tech team has significantly upgraded the website and back-end systems since then, but the influence of John Oliver was still too much to handle without any downtime.

There are now about 80,000 comments on the proposal, more than double the amount reported on Friday. The previous net neutrality debate drew 4 million comments, but there's still plenty of time to break that record. Right now, comments are being taken on the draft text of a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that will be voted on May 18. As we've previously written, there will be another three months for public comments after that preliminary vote, and the FCC will make a final decision sometime after that.

UPDATE: The FCC said today that its website was hit by multiple distributed denial-of-service attacks starting Sunday night at midnight. "These were deliberate attempts by external actors to bombard the FCC’s comment system with a high amount of traffic to our commercial cloud host," the FCC said. The DDoS attacks prevented FCC servers from responding to people attempting to submit comments. "We have worked with our commercial partners to address this situation and will continue to monitor developments going forward," the commission said.

John Oliver vs. Ajit Pai and Verizon

When Oliver tackled net neutrality in 2014, he called then-FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler a "dingo" while the commission debated whether ISPs should be allowed to charge Web services for Internet "fast lanes." Wheeler and his Democratic majority eventually issued rules outlawing paid fast lanes.

Now, the debate is over whether net neutrality rules should exist at all. At a minimum, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, a Republican, intends to reverse the decision to reclassify ISPs as common carriers under Title II of the Communications Act. Pai hasn't committed to imposing rules against blocking and throttling, and his proposal suggests that throttling of websites and applications might somehow be good for Internet users.

Pai has also said that net neutrality rules' "days are numbered" and that he intends to bring a "weed whacker" to various FCC regulations.

"'Days are numbered' and 'take a weed whacker' are serial killer talk, so that is pretty ominous," Oliver said. "When the Code of Federal Regulations looks out its window at night, there's just Ajit Pai, standing silently holding his weed whacker waiting for his chance."

Net Neutrality II: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, May 7, 2017.

Oliver scoffed at the FCC chairman's claim that net neutrality rules have harmed investment. "What he's essentially suggesting there is that as soon as Title II came in, companies said, 'fuck it, investing in infrastructure is way too difficult now, we're not doing it anymore. In fact, pull some of the cable out of the ground, we're going back to the telegraph," Oliver said.

While Pai has pointed to investment research, Oliver said that "infrastructure investment is harder to measure than you may think" and pointed out that ISPs have told investors that the rules do not impact their network investment.

Oliver also disputed Pai's claim that there is no evidence of ISPs interfering with websites and applications. "There are multiple examples of ISP fuckery over the years," Oliver said. "For instance, a few years back, Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile at one point shut out Google Wallet from their phones, a product that coincidentally happened to compete with their own mobile payment app," which was called "Isis."

Further Reading

Oliver noted that Pai is a former lawyer for Verizon and showed video of Verizon making the bizarre claim that the FCC is not talking about eliminating net neutrality rules, that no ISPs have asked the FCC to eliminate net neutrality rules, and that the FCC is simply looking to put the existing rules into a more "enforceable" legal framework outside of Title II. In reality, Verizon sued the FCC to prevent implementation of net neutrality rules issued without the commission's Title II authority, leading to the FCC's decision to use Title II to enforce net neutrality rules.

"When Verizon claims, 'hey, we love the open Internet but why don't we just put it on a different legal footing,' it's basically O.J. Simpson asking why you won't let him hold any of your samurai swords," Oliver said.

Oliver urged viewers to contact the FCC and tell the commission to preserve net neutrality rules and the Title II authority used to enforce them. He also urged viewers to contact their representatives and senators.

"Every Internet group needs to come together like you successfully did three years ago," Oliver said. "Every subculture must join as one. Gamers, YouTube celebrities, Instagram models, Tom from MySpace if you're still alive. We need all of you, even, and I cannot believe I'm saying this, Donald Trump's Internet fans on sites like 4chan and Reddit, the most powerful online trolls of all. This subject is one of the few things that we actually agree on."

Promoted Comments

The American people have spoken, and the overwhelming consensus was that we want the government to enforce Net Neutrality. This gave the FCC a pretty clear mandate to do exactly what they did when Title II was invoked and Net Neutrality was enacted.

We said, with a strong and clear voice, that fast lanes, slow lanes, and corporate censorship are not to be tolerated, and the FCC listened.

Neither Pai, nor anyone else, can say that this is in America's best interest, when America told the FCC exactly what Americans want. Quite frankly, I'm still amazed this is even under consideration.

The right to freedom of expression is recognized as a human right under article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and recognized in international human rights law in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). Article 19 of the UDHR states that "everyone shall have the right to hold opinions without interference" and "everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice".

That sounds great in theory. I'd like to see the U.N actually enforce that right in places like North Korea, Iran, Russia, etc.

You want the UN to violate national sovereignty? Odd that you'd say that.

No. I just want them to quit spout meaningless platitudes that they have no intention of enforcing. What's the point?

So tell us. How does one enforce such things against a country like Russia? You know, the one armed to the teeth with enough nuclear weaponry attached to ICBM's to kill every living thing on Earth. Outside of what the US and NATO allies have been doing (sanctions). What more action can be taken that doesn't spark WW III and the potential genocide of humanity?

The right to freedom of expression is recognized as a human right under article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and recognized in international human rights law in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). Article 19 of the UDHR states that "everyone shall have the right to hold opinions without interference" and "everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice".

That sounds great in theory. I'd like to see the U.N actually enforce that right in places like North Korea, Iran, Russia, etc.

You want the UN to violate national sovereignty? Odd that you'd say that.

No. I just want them to quit spout meaningless platitudes that they have no intention of enforcing. What's the point?

So tell us. How does one enforce such things against a country like Russia? You know, the one armed to the teeth with enough nuclear weaponry attached to ICBM's to kill every living thing on Earth. Outside of what the US and NATO allies have been doing (sanctions). What more action can be taken that doesn't spark WW III and the potential genocide of humanity?

England has some insane government regulations regarding internet censorship.

He pokes fun at the US for not wanting the government involved in the internet.

He should look to his home before bashing someone else's.

Well be sure to head back to your country of origin unless you are a native american.

I do not believe anywhere in my comment did I say he should "head back" to his country of origin. If I did, please point out where.

Then what would be the point of implying somebody should be quiet about the country they live in? Because the USA is made up of mostly of those who's origins is from another country. Except native americans.

England has some insane government regulations regarding internet censorship.

He pokes fun at the US for not wanting the government involved in the internet.

He should look to his home before bashing someone else's.

John Oliver is yet another media clown not intended to be taken seriously. His main purpose is to amuse with pander. Bring your pop-corn.

The sad part is that a large number of people take him seriously, like they did that Stewart jack-ass.

Know nothing of what they are talking about aside from what the show writers put on a teleprompter, fan the flames of millennial stupidity, profit.

Sad.

Yeah It was quite pathetic to see liberals asking Jon Stewart to save them some how, like if he was some kind of serious political guru. He is a comedian, a media clown!. Even Jon made fun of them LOL. He looked kind of sad by that

Ah ha! Now I get it!You think that 'journalist' is just a synonym for 'liberal'.

Now I understand the American "Right" somewhat better than I did before. That insight helps explain so much...

England has some insane government regulations regarding internet censorship.

He pokes fun at the US for not wanting the government involved in the internet.

He should look to his home before bashing someone else's.

John Oliver is yet another media clown not intended to be taken seriously. His main purpose is to amuse with pander. Bring your pop-corn.

The sad part is that a large number of people take him seriously, like they did that Stewart jack-ass.

Know nothing of what they are talking about aside from what the show writers put on a teleprompter, fan the flames of millennial stupidity, profit.

Sad.

Yeah It was quite pathetic to see liberals asking Jon Stewart to save them some how, like if he was some kind of serious political guru. He is a comedian, a media clown!. Even Jon made fun of them LOL. He looked kind of sad by that

Ah ha! Now I get it!You think that 'journalist' is just a synonym for 'liberal'.

Now I understand the American "Right" somewhat better than I did before. That insight helps explain so much...

So you think that Oliver and Jon the Buffons are a journalists to begin with (face palm). Journalism is not synonym of 'liberal', but most Liberals and Conservatives who claim to be 'journalists' are not such a thing. They are in fact entertainers, buffoons, propagandists , hacks, etc.

England has some insane government regulations regarding internet censorship.

He pokes fun at the US for not wanting the government involved in the internet.

He should look to his home before bashing someone else's.

John Oliver is yet another media clown not intended to be taken seriously. His main purpose is to amuse with pander. Bring your pop-corn.

The sad part is that a large number of people take him seriously, like they did that Stewart jack-ass.

Know nothing of what they are talking about aside from what the show writers put on a teleprompter, fan the flames of millennial stupidity, profit.

Sad.

Yeah It was quite pathetic to see liberals asking Jon Stewart to save them some how, like if he was some kind of serious political guru. He is a comedian, a media clown!. Even Jon made fun of them LOL. He looked kind of sad by that

Ah ha! Now I get it!You think that 'journalist' is just a synonym for 'liberal'.

Now I understand the American "Right" somewhat better than I did before. That insight helps explain so much...

England has some insane government regulations regarding internet censorship.

He pokes fun at the US for not wanting the government involved in the internet.

He should look to his home before bashing someone else's.

John Oliver is yet another media clown not intended to be taken seriously. His main purpose is to amuse with pander. Bring your pop-corn.

And yet, he's still a far better source of new and analysis than FOX News is...

What's that expression, again? Oh yeah.Sad.

The fact that you considerer him a "source" is telling. I mean, you are trying to understand complex political and social realities with a cartoon, with doodles , like a little child, thru a clown. Embrace yourself.

England has some insane government regulations regarding internet censorship.

He pokes fun at the US for not wanting the government involved in the internet.

He should look to his home before bashing someone else's.

John Oliver is yet another media clown not intended to be taken seriously. His main purpose is to amuse with pander. Bring your pop-corn.

And yet, he's still a far better source of new and analysis than FOX News is...

What's that expression, again? Oh yeah.Sad.

The fact that you considerer him a "source" is telling. I mean, you are trying to understand complex political and social realities with a cartoon, with doodles , like a little child, thru a clown. Embrace yourself.

The lack of self-awareness with this one is hilarious. I wonder which corporate entity hired him. I also wonder if his price is anything more than a simple sense of belonging. Poor, pathetic creature.

England has some insane government regulations regarding internet censorship.

He pokes fun at the US for not wanting the government involved in the internet.

He should look to his home before bashing someone else's.

John Oliver is yet another media clown not intended to be taken seriously. His main purpose is to amuse with pander. Bring your pop-corn.

And yet, he's still a far better source of new and analysis than FOX News is...

What's that expression, again? Oh yeah.Sad.

The fact that you considerer him a "source" is telling. I mean, you are trying to understand complex political and social realities with a cartoon, with doodles , like a little child, thru a clown. Embrace yourself.

The lack of self-awareness with this one is hilarious. I wonder which corporate entity hired him. I also wonder if his price is anything more than a simple sense of belonging. Poor, pathetic creature.

You seem to be parroting a prearranged script of insults. Try to be more original when trolling.

England has some insane government regulations regarding internet censorship.

He pokes fun at the US for not wanting the government involved in the internet.

He should look to his home before bashing someone else's.

John Oliver is yet another media clown not intended to be taken seriously. His main purpose is to amuse with pander. Bring your pop-corn.

And yet, he's still a far better source of new and analysis than FOX News is...

What's that expression, again? Oh yeah.Sad.

The fact that you considerer him a "source" is telling. I mean, you are trying to understand complex political and social realities with a cartoon, with doodles , like a little child, thru a clown. Embrace yourself.

He explains complex issues from video and texts from/of primary sources while putting jokes in at the same time.

If you really care (I don't see any indication but trolling), you would pick a subject and link other primary sources to counter Oliver's sources.

Too late for native americans to enforce immigration control. The damage is already done. They lost their countries and nations.

Just another ignore jackass on the Internet that doesn't know the difference between immigration and invasion.

Europeans weren't immigrating to Native American tribes dumbass, they were expanding their territory and sometimes explicitly going to war with the tribes.

If you think modern immigrants that want to become Americans are the same as a wartime invasion, then you're just a racist.

So according to you we can forget about the "America is a nation of immigrants" motto. Now we can say "America is a nation of invaders and rapists." when you try to rationalize illegal immigration.

Again... ignorant jackass. Once the nation was established, it had an open immigration policy for many years. Remember Ellis island? You would have learned about it in school, if you had gone. USA *is* a nation of immigrants.

You guys...the more you respond to people like PeterBrod, the more they keep talking. Do you enjoy dancing to his music in the comment section? Just ignore and move on, because right now collectively this thread is a feast for trolls. (COMING 2018 FROM GEORGE R R MARTIN)

Of course we do. Like I said. It's funny watching a fool. There's a reason every village needs their idiot - the LULZ.

I'm not sure whether every village actually does or does not need it's own village Idiot.

But that's entirely beside the point -- right now, we're hip-deep in volunteers for the position.

You guys...the more you respond to people like PeterBrod, the more they keep talking. Do you enjoy dancing to his music in the comment section? Just ignore and move on, because right now collectively this thread is a feast for trolls. (COMING 2018 FROM GEORGE R R MARTIN)

Of course we do. Like I said. It's funny watching a fool. There's a reason every village needs their idiot - the LULZ.

I'm not sure whether every village actually does or does not need it's own village Idiot.

But that's entirely beside the point -- right now, we're hip-deep in volunteers for the position.

You daggone leftist bastards!. Lookie here. This here is what separates us right think’n moral compasses of society from you bastardized nation robbing heathens. See here…No wait that’s not right. Here…Wait, damnit how did that get in there. Hold on….There ya go. SHIT! Damnit, gimme a sec….There now you see. You damn leftist nation robbing bastards. And the Alt-Right is a meaningless minority and doesn’t matter! OH SHIT damnit how the HELL did that get in there....There now. That’s rig……..GOD DAMNIT! Hold on…

Here now ya see! You damn leftist nation robbing bastards! This here is how it is! And the damn alt-right doesn’t matter and no-one pays attention to them! Glad I could help spell it out for ya!

England has some insane government regulations regarding internet censorship.

He pokes fun at the US for not wanting the government involved in the internet.

He should look to his home before bashing someone else's.

John Oliver is yet another media clown not intended to be taken seriously. His main purpose is to amuse with pander. Bring your pop-corn.

And yet, he's still a far better source of new and analysis than FOX News is...

What's that expression, again? Oh yeah.Sad.

The fact that you considerer him a "source" is telling. I mean, you are trying to understand complex political and social realities with a cartoon, with doodles , like a little child, thru a clown. Embrace yourself.

He explains complex issues from video and texts from/of primary sources while putting jokes in at the same time.

If you really care (I don't see any indication but trolling), you would pick a subject and link other primary sources to counter Oliver's sources.

But you don't.

That's not the proper way to understand complex issues like politics, history and social issues. Not even close. You think that your TV is good way to educate yourself. Again, embrace yourself. There are much better and much more serious analysts, academics, writers and even journalists, from left to right, who do an infinitely better job than those media clowns. You are just glorifying a clown that is telling what you want to hear and is making you feel the way you want.

The ONLY standard that clowns like Oliver hold to themselves is called " TV ratings". Not journalistic standards, not academic standards, not scientific standards, nothing of the sort.

You daggone leftist bastards!. Lookie here. This here is what separates us right think’n moral compasses of society from you bastardized nation robbing heathens. See here…

Spoiler: show

No wait that’s not right. Here…Wait, damnit how did that get in there. Hold on….There ya go. SHIT! Damnit, gimme a sec….There now you see. You damn leftist nation robbing bastards. And the Alt-Right is a meaningless minority and doesn’t matter! OH SHIT damnit how the HELL did that get in there....There now. That’s rig……..GOD DAMNIT! Hold on…

Here now ya see! You damn leftist nation robbing bastards! This here is how it is! And the damn alt-right doesn’t matter and no-one pays attention to them! Glad I could help spell it out for ya!

You daggone leftist bastards!. Lookie here. This here is what separates us right think’n moral compasses of society from you bastardized nation robbing heathens. See here…

Spoiler: show

No wait that’s not right. Here…Wait, damnit how did that get in there. Hold on….There ya go. SHIT! Damnit, gimme a sec….There now you see. You damn leftist nation robbing bastards. And the Alt-Right is a meaningless minority and doesn’t matter! OH SHIT damnit how the HELL did that get in there....There now. That’s rig……..GOD DAMNIT! Hold on…

Here now ya see! You damn leftist nation robbing bastards! This here is how it is! And the damn alt-right doesn’t matter and no-one pays attention to them! Glad I could help spell it out for ya!

England has some insane government regulations regarding internet censorship.

He pokes fun at the US for not wanting the government involved in the internet.

He should look to his home before bashing someone else's.

John Oliver is yet another media clown not intended to be taken seriously. His main purpose is to amuse with pander. Bring your pop-corn.

And yet, he's still a far better source of new and analysis than FOX News is...

What's that expression, again? Oh yeah.Sad.

The fact that you considerer him a "source" is telling. I mean, you are trying to understand complex political and social realities with a cartoon, with doodles , like a little child, thru a clown. Embrace yourself.

He explains complex issues from video and texts from/of primary sources while putting jokes in at the same time.

If you really care (I don't see any indication but trolling), you would pick a subject and link other primary sources to counter Oliver's sources.

But you don't.

That's not the proper way to understand complex issues like politics, history and social issues. Not even close. You think that your TV is good way to educate yourself. Again, embrace yourself. There are much better and much more serious analysts, academics, writers and even journalists, from left to right, who do an infinitely better job than those media clowns. You are just glorifying a clown that is telling what you want to hear and is making you feel the way you want.

The ONLY standard that clowns like Oliver hold to themselves is called " TV ratings". Not journalistic standards, not academic standards, not scientific standards, nothing of the sort.

England has some insane government regulations regarding internet censorship.

He pokes fun at the US for not wanting the government involved in the internet.

He should look to his home before bashing someone else's.

John Oliver is yet another media clown not intended to be taken seriously. His main purpose is to amuse with pander. Bring your pop-corn.

The sad part is that a large number of people take him seriously, like they did that Stewart jack-ass.

Know nothing of what they are talking about aside from what the show writers put on a teleprompter, fan the flames of millennial stupidity, profit.

Sad.

Yeah It was quite pathetic to see liberals asking Jon Stewart to save them some how, like if he was some kind of serious political guru. He is a comedian, a media clown!. Even Jon made fun of them LOL. He looked kind of sad by that

Ah ha! Now I get it!You think that 'journalist' is just a synonym for 'liberal'.

Now I understand the American "Right" somewhat better than I did before. That insight helps explain so much...

You didn't know this before?

Hey, gim'me a break here -- this depth of idiocy is hard to fully grasp in its totality.